PROTOPLASM 3 



here we can look at it, under the microscope, undifferentiated 

 and, so to say, in bulk. If we do so look, we see a whitish 

 substance, sometimes clear as crystal, but more often semi- 

 opaque, like ground-glass. It contains many darker specks 

 or granules, and some of these are particles of food. If the 

 protoplasm be shut up in a vegetable-cell it flows hither and 

 thither, usually up one side and down the other, or, like a 

 Roger de Coverley dance, "up the side and down the middle." 

 If the protoplasm be free, i.e. not confined by any surrounding 

 cell-wall, it will be constantly changing its outline, on one 

 side thrusting out a lobe or protuberance, on the other 

 perhaps withdrawing one, and in this way the whole piece 

 of protoplasm may move slowly forward. This whitish, soft 

 substance, semi- jelly, semi-fluid, is living protoplasm, but so 

 are our muscle cells and the cells of our brain and our blood 

 corpuscles. All these, however, are more specialized and not 

 so easily studied; still, all obey the same laws and do the 

 same ultimate things. 



Attributes of Living Matter 



What is it that this protoplasm does that non-living matter, 

 such as rocks and stones, never does? To begin with, it is 

 motile. We have seen that it can alter from time to time its 

 outline or shape, and by doing this in a certain way it can 

 move forward or progress, or move backward and regress. 

 Therefore it is motile, and the slow protuberance of a lobe on 

 one side of the body, and the equally slow withdrawal of 

 another on the other side, is the first beginning of that 

 muscular contraction which may ultimately produce a com- 

 petitoi^for the Olympic Games. As far as we can judge, 

 even this simple movement is not always the residt of an 

 external stimulus, but arises from something in the proto- 

 plasm itself, and certainly such is the case in the more complex 

 instances of higher life. This initiation of action from within 

 is called automatism, and protoplasm, unlike non-livmg 

 matter, is automatic. But it also readily reacts to external 

 impressions or stimuh. An electric current passed through 

 the water in which our living matter is suspended will cause ' 

 it to contract into a sphere, and thus to present for its bulk 



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